RESTRICTED  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/CTE/M/45 
9 January 2008 
 (08-0095) 
Committee on Trade and Environment  
  
 
 
REPORT OF THE MEETING HELD ON 30 NOVEMBER 2007 
 
Note by the Secretariat
 
 
 
1. The Committee on Trade and Environment (CTE Regular) met on 30 November 2007 under 
the Chairmanship of Ambassador Manuel A. J. T eehankee.  The following agenda, proposed in 
WTO/AIR/3115 dated 8 November 2007, was adopted: 
I. PARAGRAPH 32................................................................................................................... ...1 
A. PARAGRAPH 32(I) (MARKET ACCESS )..........................................................................................1  
1. Market Access .................................................................................................................. .........1  
2. Sector Analysis ("win-win-win").............................................................................................3  
B. PARAGRAPH 32(II) (TRIPS )...........................................................................................................4  
C. PARAGRAPH 32(III) (LABELLING ) ................................................................................................4  
D. OTHER ITEMS OF THE CTE  WORK PROGRAMME .........................................................................4  
II. PARAGRAPH 33................................................................................................................... ...4 
III. PARAGRAPH 51................................................................................................................... ...6 
IV. ADOPTION OF THE 2007 ANNUAL REPORT ..................................................................6  
V. OTHER BUSINESS................................................................................................................. .6 
 
 
I. PARAGRAPH 32 
A. PARAGRAPH 32(I) (MARKET ACCESS ) 
The effect of environmental measures on market access, especially in relation to developing 
countries, in particular the least-developed am ong them, and those situations in which the 
elimination or reduction of trade restric tions and distortions w ould benefit trade, the 
environment and development.  
1. Market Access 
2. The Chairman  recalled that at the May 2007 meeting, the CTE had held discussions based on 
two Secretariat notes which provided overviews on:  (i) work carried out in the TBT and SPS Committees with respect to environment-relate d notifications and specific trade concerns 
(JOB(06)/263);  and (ii)  findings of recent studies in the OECD Trade Policy Studies 2005 and the 
UNCTAD Trade and Environment Review 2006 (WT/CTE/W/244).  A number of Members had raised concerns on the impact of private voluntar y standards on trade.  One delegation had proposed WT/CTE/M/45 
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  that the CTE hold focussed discussions on private st andards, market access issues and developmental 
concerns.  At that meeting, a discussion had also  been held on trade liberalization of organic 
agricultural products, and a number of developing countries shared their national and regional 
experiences in this sector.   
3. The representative of the UNCTAD
 informed the CTE of the outcome of a symposium, 
entitled Environmental Requirements and Market A ccess: Turning Challenges into Opportunities, 
organised by the UNEP-UNCTAD Capacity Building Task Force on Trade, Environment and Development (CBTF) on 3 Octobe r 2007 in Geneva.  The meeting had focused on the sectors of 
organic agriculture and electronic equipment, and had debated on the following two issues:  (i) to 
address the challenges and constraints faced by developing countries on market access of organic 
agriculture and electronics products due to the increasingly numerous, stringent and complex 
environmental standards and requirements; and ( ii) to identify market opportunities for developing 
countries created by environmental standards a nd technical requirements in these two sectors.  
4. He recalled that the meeting had highlighted  a number of challenges faced by developing 
country producers and exporters.  These included the cost of compliance and certification, in 
particular, for small producers;  the lack of harmoni zation on standards;  the lack of timely and up-to-
date information on existing and ne w requirements, their analysis a nd appropriate dissemination;  and 
the lack of consultations between develope d and developing countries when drafting and 
implementing new environmental re gulations.  Related to this, he  noted the procedures in the 
European Communities that provided for impact a ssessment on legislative proposals and consultation 
with stakeholders.   
5. He said that the poor infrastructure and in stitutional capacity explained why developing 
countries often tended to adopt a reactive and fire-fi ghting approach to environmental requirements on 
their key export sectors.  With respect to the sector  of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE), there 
was also the problem of the lack of EEE-waste management schemes in these countries to prevent 
health and environmental problems. 
6. Turning to opportunities, he recalled that the meeting had noted the importance of technical 
assistance and capacity building initiati ves that could contribute to assi sting developing countries to 
adopt and implement a more pro-active approach to environmental requirements and standards.  
Moreover, voluntary instruments, such as eco-label s or geographical indicati ons, could provide access 
to the increasingly important niche markets in developed countries.   
7. He highlighted that regional standards, such as the East African Organic Products Standard, 
which had been developed in c ooperation between public and priv ate stakeholders under the CBTF 
initiative, could be an important means to boost tr ade and market development in developing country 
regions, as well as assist producers to gain market access and to influence international standard setting.   
8. He said that the involvement and contribution of the private sector, notably in the case of 
technology development, was a key element.  There was a need to encourage public-private 
partnerships, stakeholder networ ks and corporate social responsibility initiatives to allow for the 
emergence of new cooperative avenues among stakeholde rs.  In order to effectively turn challenges 
into opportunities, it was important for developi ng countries to identify this kind of tools and 
mechanisms as an integral part of pro-active adjustment strategies.   
9. He believed that opportunities offered by futu re liberalisation of environmental goods and 
services, as well as results from trade negotiations in agriculture and NAMA, would enhance 
developing countries' participation in trade and capacity in environmental goods industry and 
technology.  The interface between environmental requirements and market access could then be seen  WT/CTE/M/45 
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  as turning the challenges of both environmental require ments and market access into opportunities.  It 
was particularly the case for developing countries, since market access and growth could provide greater possibility of addressing environmental requirements.   
10. He said that all presentations and documents of that symposium were accessible on the CBTF 
website (www.unep-unctad.or g/cbtf/welcome.htm).  
11. He drew the CTE's attention to three UNCTAD studies on challenges and opportunities faced 
by developing country producers and exporters as a result of private standards on fresh fruit and 
vegetables.  These studies synthesized country-l evel papers carried out under UNCTAD's 
Consultative Task Force on Environmental Requirement s and Market Access.  The first study, entitled 
"The Implications of Private-sector Standards for Good Agricultural Practices - Exploring Options to 
Facilitate Market Access for Developing-country Ex porters of Fruit and Vegetables: Experiences of 
Argentina, Brazil and Costa Rica", had been pub lished and could be downl oaded from the website 
(www.unctad.org/trade_env).  Two other studies - one synthesizing the experience of Ghana, 
Ethiopia, Kenya, Zambia and Uganda;  and the ot her summarizing the findings in Malaysia, Thailand 
and Viet Nam - would be accessible on the website in the coming weeks.  
12. Finally, he informed the CTE that on 29 November 2007, all UN Regional Commissions, 
together with UNCTAD and UNEP had held a high- level meeting on Fostering a Mutually-supportive 
Trade and Environment Regime: Perspectives and L essons Learnt at Regional Level.  The meeting 
had been organized to present and discuss with Geneva  delegates the key findi ngs and conclusions of 
a UN wide Development Account project on trade and environment linkages implemented in the 
previous three years.  The meeting had touched upon the themes of environmental requirements and 
market access in the food sector;  environmental good and services;  environmental impact of trade;  
and policy coherence.  All documents and presenta tions of that meeting were accessible at the 
UNCTAD trade and environment website ( www.unctad.org/trade_env/index.asp).   
13. The representative of Brazil
 thanked UNEP and UNCTAD for the report and for organizing 
the symposium on Environmental Requirements an d Market Access.  The event had provided clear 
ideas on how environmental requirements had been  put in place in some countries and could 
constitute non-tariff trade barriers for exports  from developing countries.  She believed the 
symposium was constructive since it had provided an opportunity for experience sharing in this field, 
including on how developing countries c ould overcome trade barriers.     
14. The Committee took note  of the statements made.  The Chairman  said that, furthering the 
Committee's discussion on organic products at the May 2007 meeting, he would consult informally 
with delegations on the usefulness of a learning event on that topic.      
2. Sector Analysis ("win-win-win") 
15. The representative of UNEP briefed the CTE on UNEP’s activities related to fisheries 
subsidies.   She said that it had been ten years since UNEP first held a workshop to promote integrated responses to the need for fisheries subsidies re form.  UNEP believed that the WTO was the most 
promising international forum for effectively disciplin ing fisheries subsidies, a nd, in particular, during 
the past 6 years, UNEP had been observing solid pr ogress in the negotiations.  This was due to the 
high level of political commitment and dedication of many delegates to this complicated issue at the 
interface between environmental and trade policies.  It  was also due to the continuous efforts of the 
civil society, as had been highlighted recently by Mr . Lamy in his speech at the WTO Public Forum.  
16. She drew delegations' attention to a UN EP-WWF Symposium on Disciplining Fisheries 
Subsidies held on 1-2 March 2007.  It had been  attended by more than 120 individuals from 
governments, IGOs, NGOs, regional fisheries ma nagement organizations and academia.  The WT/CTE/M/45 
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  Symposium had offered an informal forum for discuss ion on how to integrate workable “sustainability 
criteria” into new subsidies rules and national policie s.  A range of options and mechanisms had been 
discussed and clarified.  Participants had noted th ree key indicators that had a direct and significant 
bearing on the likelihood that subsidies would contri bute to overcapacity or overfishing in any given 
fishery.  These indicators related to fish stocks, fishing capacity and management.  It had been felt 
that further technical analysis of these issues was warranted and necessary.     
17. She pointed to a recent UNEP-WWF paper on “Sustainability Criteria for Fisheries Subsidies: 
Options for the WTO and Beyond” aimed to provide  this technical input.  It had benefited from 
contributions by various delegations and stakeholde rs, and had been revised based on those inputs.  
The paper looked at options of tests aimed at reduci ng the risks of subsidies that would fall outside the 
scope of a potential new ban.  These tests or cr iteria related to the earlier-mentioned indicators, 
namely the health of fish stocks, capacity of fishin g fleets, and adequacy of fisheries management.  In 
each category, criteria had been articulated at diffe rent levels of environmental ambition, where the 
least ambitious level referred to requirements suita ble for a potential use in WTO rules and the most 
ambitious to best practices for national subsidies reform. 
18. The analysis and options had demonstrated that sustainability criteria for fisheries subsidies 
could be rooted in accepted international norms , tailored for WTO use as well as in the broader 
context of national practices.  She said that UNEP’s activities on fisheries subsidies were part of the UNEP project on “Promoting Sustainable Trade, Consumption and Production Patterns in the Fisheries Sector.”  This project assisted governme nts and stakeholders to promote the sustainable 
management of fisheries and to contribute to povert y reduction.  It supported public sector reforms as 
well as private sector approaches.   
19. The Committee took note
 of the statement. 
B. PARAGRAPH 32(II) (TRIPS ) 
 The relevant provisions of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property 
 Rights (TRIPS)   
20. No statements were made under this sub-item. 
C. PARAGRAPH 32(III) (LABELLING ) 
21. The Chairman  recalled that at the previous meeting,  the delegation of the United States had 
given a presentation on the US "Energy Star Produc t Labelling."  The handout of that presentation had 
been made available in the room. 
D. OTHER ITEMS OF THE CTE  WORK PROGRAMME  
22. No statements were made under this sub-item. 
II. PARAGRAPH 33 
We recognize the importance of technical assistance and capacity building in the 
field of trade and environment to d eveloping countries, in particular the 
least-developed among them.  We also en courage that expertise and experience be 
shared with Members wishing to perform envi ronmental reviews at the national level.    WT/CTE/M/45 
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  1. Technical Assistance and Capacity Building 
 
23. The Chairman  drew the Committee's attention to docu ment (JOB(07)/67), which contained a 
paper presented by Norway at the previous meeti ng on the Norwegian Action Plan for Environment in 
Development Cooperation, as well as a room docum ent on the Secretariat's 2007-2009 technical 
assistance activities in the area of trade and environment (see Annex 1). 
2. Environmental Reviews 
 
24. With respect to experience sharing on environmental reviews, the Chairman  recalled that, in 
order to facilitate the experience sharing exerci se and to provide the CTE with some factual 
background information in this field, the Secretaria t had consolidated a list of environmental reviews 
which had been or were being carried out under mult ilateral, regional and bilateral trade liberalization 
initiatives, as well as national projects (WT/CTE/W/245).  He recalled that Members had been invited to submit any supplementary information to the S ecretariat, so that this list could be updated 
regularly.   
25. The representative of the European Communities (EC
) recalled that the European Union (EU) 
had launched free trade agreements in spring 2007 with India, ASEAN and South Korea, as well as 
association agreements with Central America and the Andean community.  She said that the EC 
would soon launch trade sustainability im pact assessments on these negotiations.   
26. She recalled that at a previous meeting, her delegation had informed the CTE of the EC's 
trade sustainability impact asse ssments on the DDA negotiations and the EC-EUROMED free trade 
agreement.  She said that these studies had recen tly been completed.  Documents on all the above 
studies were publicly available and could be accessed on the EC website. 
27. The representative of UNEP  said that since late 1990s, UNEP had been working closely with 
national governments and research institutes to su pport national efforts to assess impacts of trade-
related policies.  This work responded to the num erous international declarations calling for the 
development of mutually supportive trade a nd environment policies and the integration of 
sustainability considerations in policy-making.   
28. She recalled that in July 2005, UNEP had launc hed a four-year initiative in collaboration with 
the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Di versity (CBD) to build national capacities in ACP 
countries to assess, design and implement policies th at maximised development gains from trade in 
the agriculture sector while mini mizing the impact on biodiversity.  This initiative responded to the 
various requests by CBD Conference of Parties to fu rther study the impacts of trade liberalisation on 
agricultural biodiversity.  Six country projects had been launched at the beginning of 2007 in Jamaica 
(sugar), Cameroon (cocoa), Madag ascar (shrimps), Mauritius (suga r), Uganda (horticulture) and 
Papua New Guinea (local cash crops –sweet potato and taro).   
29. On 26-28 November 2007, the six country teams - including representatives from 
governments and designated research institutions - had been invited to Geneva to discuss the 
intermediate results of the assessment studies.  This meeting aimed to review and address the challenges that project teams had encountered when conducting trade-rela ted assessment studies.  
Experts from various international organizations, su ch as the CBD and the International Association 
of Impact Assessment, had participated in that m eeting and had made contributions on issues such as 
valuation techniques, indicators for measuring biod iversity and the way to conceptualise linkages 
between changes in agricultural trade policies and impacts on biodiversity and human well-being.  WT/CTE/M/45 
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  30. She said that all information related to th at meeting was available on UNEP-ETB website 
(http://www.unep.ch/etb/areas/biodivAgriSector.php).  She thanked the EU and Sweden for their 
financial support in this in itiative and invited interested Members to contact UNEP. 
31. The Committee took note
 of the statements made.   
III. PARAGRAPH 51 
The Committee on Trade and Development and the Committee on Trade and 
Environment shall, within their respective mandates, each act as a forum to identify 
and debate developmental and environmental aspects of the negotiations, in order to  help achieve the objective of having sustai nable development appropriately reflected. 
32. The Chairman
 recalled that at the end of 2006, a Secretariat note WT/CTE/W/243 on the 
environment related elements in the Doha Negotia tions had been prepared.  This note compiled the 
environment-related issues in the following five ar eas of the Doha negotiations:  agriculture, market 
access for non-agricultural products, rules, servi ces and trade and environment.  He invited 
delegations to further reflect on that paper.   
33. The Committee took note  of the statement made.   
IV. ADOPTION OF THE 2007 ANNUAL REPORT  
34.  The Committee adopted  its 2007 report to the General Council (WT/CTE/14).   
V. OTHER BUSINESS 
35. The next meeting of the Committee would be held in the first half of 2008.    
 
 
 
_______________ 
   
 
   WT/CTE/M/45 
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  ANNEX 1 
      
WTO TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE ACTIVITIES IN THE AREA OF  
TRADE AND ENVIRONMENT  
2007 and 2008-2009 
 
Information from the Secretariat  
 
 Technical Assistance Activities Undertaken in 2007 
 
Regional and National Workshops on Trade and Environment  
 
1. In 2007, a regional workshop was organized  for Asian and Pacific Economies in India  
(16-18 October)
 to facilitate a more effective participati on of developing country Members in WTO's 
work on trade and environment, in particul ar under the Doha Development Agenda.   
 2. At the workshop, participants were informed  of the relevant background and WTO rules with 
respect to trade and environment, work of th e CTE and status of the trade and environment 
negotiations.  The programme was tailored to the interests of the region and was interactive and 
designed to ensure full engagement from participan ts.  The workshop provided a forum for experience 
sharing on trade and environment matters, as well as opportunities to promote greater dialogue 
between trade and environment officials.  UNCTA D and UNEP secretariats were invited to make 
presentations relevant to their activities.  3. In 2007, a national workshop was conducted in Gabon (20-21 June).  The programme was 
discussed with the beneficiary Member and tailored to respond to specific needs.   
 
Participation in Meetings of Other Organizations 
 
4. The Secretariat continued to use the opport unity of attendance at meetings of other 
organizations to network and conve y information on relevant discussions in the CTE and CTESS.  In 
2007, the Secretariat participated inter alia  in the 24
th Session of the UNEP Governing 
Council/Global Ministerial Environmental Forum (3-10 February) with the attendance of the Director 
General;  and in the UN Commission on Sustainabl e Development High Level Segment (9-11 May).  
At both meetings, side events were organized.  Also, other events participated were the 55th Session of 
the Standing Committee of the CITES (2 June);  and the UN High Level Event on Climate Change 
(24 September).  A side event was also organized on this occasion.      
 
Trade Policy Courses and Introductory Courses 
 
5. As in the case of other areas of WTO's work, th e subject of trade and environment is routinely 
included in the programmes of Geneva-based trade policy and introductory courses, as well as WTO 
regional trade policy courses.  In 2007, trade and environment was addressed in regional trade policy 
courses held in Singapore, Namibia and Chile. 
 WT/CTE/M/45 
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  Technical Assistance Activities in 2008-2009   
 
6. For 2008 and 2009, and in accordance with th e Technical Assistance and Training Plan for 
2008-2009 formally adopted by the Committee on Trade and Development on 14 November 2007
1, 
six regional workshops on trade and environment w ill be organized for the regions of Africa (English 
and French speaking);  Arab and Middle East;  As ia-Pacific;  Central and Eastern Europe, Central 
Asia and Caucasus;  and Latin America.   
 
__________ 
 
  
                                        
1 WT/COMTD/W/160.